[Noisebridge-discuss] fundraiser for Linux in schools, tomorrow 5 PM, 1601 Turk Street, Creative Arts Charter School

[jim]

Hi, 
   A number of volunteers for Partimus.org have been working very 
hard for free for 6.5 years now in various public schools around 
the Bay Area to place GNU-Linux machines in public schools.  
   We have established a good foundation, and we now want to build 
on that foundation.  The teachers appreciate Linux, are not 
afraid of it, and use it heavily for a wide variety of functions,
including some mission-critical functions such as reporting 
grades and so forth, at least in some schools. 
   In some of the schools, Linux is the only platform to which the 
kids have access for reaching the Internet.

   All of this is a marvelous accomplishment, and we want to extend 
that achievement. But to do so, we are going to need to bring in 
funds.  We have been running entirely on volunteer fumes.  If we 
are going to expand, we will need to establish a financial 
foundation to build on the foundation of goodwill we have achieved 
and technical prowess that we have demonstrated.

   Toward that end, we are holding an initial fundraiser to build a 
fundraising committee on December 15, 2010, at 5 pm at 1601 Turk 
Street, at the Creative Arts Charter School, in the Board Room.  
The purpose of this meeting is to create a group of dedicated 
volunteers who will focus on fundraising for our Linux-schools 
efforts.  We will be providing modest refreshments, and we
will be asking for a suggested donation of $25.00 at the time of 
the 12/15/10 meeting to kick off our fundraising drive.

   Free open source software has created a lot of jobs and wealth, 
and now is a great time for us to expand our efforts to bring the 
considerable benefits of free software to those who really need it 
most, namely, public schools whose budgets have been mercilessly 
slashed for more than a decade. 
   Supporting education fits very well with the FOSS culture of 
expanding knowledge, transparency, and democracy.  Attending this 
fundraiser would be a great way for the members of this list to 
make a commitment to supporting our proven and very successful 
efforts to get FOSS ideals into the broader society.

   We will not be asking for too much of your time.  We will only 
be asking you to share your contacts will us, and help us do 
outreach to get your friends and neighbors to make small but 
meaningful financial contributions to our efforts.

   One of the specific goals of the 12/15/10 fundraiser will be 
to prepare for a larger fundraiser to be held in the spring at the 
Creative Arts Charter School.  That fundraiser will be a large 
installfest and FOSS festival.  We are planning to have booths 
for Bay Area FOSS-related groups, such as local LUGs and local 
FOSS-related businesses, both large and small.  We will have 
barbeques and games for kids.  It will be a fun, family-oriented 
event that will have the dual purpose of raising money and 
soliciting hardware donations, which will be triaged on the spot 
and we will install GNU-Linux on machines that are brought in, so 
that we can turn those machine right around and install them in 
the 6 Bay Area Schools where we have a FOSS presence.

   Also for the 12/15/10 event, we are asking people to bring working 
laptops, printers, monitors, keyboards, and optical mice towers to 
donate.  Our minimum spec for donation is 512 MB of RAM and at least 
1.8 Ghz chips or the AMD equivalent.


-- 
Christian Einfeldt,
Producer, The Digital Tipping Point